Build a Salad Table

Lo built me a salad table on Sunday and it’s set up and planted now!  I’m so excited to see if I’ll get lots of lettuce! The table will be in full sun through the second week of June or so, and then we (meaning, Lo and probably our neighbor – because that shit it heavy!) will move it to a mostly shady area so hopefully stuff will still grow when the weather gets really hot.  Salad greens tend to bolt when it gets really hot, but moving the table to the shade may help.  I don’t even know what bolting means….people always just say it in relation to plants and heat, so I think I’m using it right, lol.

So far, I’ve just planted various lettuces because I need to wait until the last frost date to plant herbs and a few other things.  That will also give me time to see what’s actually coming up like it’s supposed to and how much room I have.  I’m a little worried that I used soil that was a little heavy, rather than a special mix of lighter materials, but I planted lettuce in regular bagged garden soil last year and it came up, so I’m hoping for the best and as I need to add soil, I’ll add some lighter stuff.

He bought all of the supplies at Lowe’s and spent about $60 on all of the materials (and has plenty of leftover screws, nails, and such).  It took him a few hours to put together without him rushing.  I had a friend and her toddler over, so he was stopping to interact here and there and eat lunch, etc.  He is still going to build trays for the bottom too, which can be used for flowers, herbs, or veggies that can handle partial shade (this looks like a good list), or even just for supplies.  He used a couple of different plans to build the table, taking a little from each.  He mostly used this plan from Grow It Organically, though we didn’t put it on wheels and he didn’t build trays for the top bin (but plans to for the bottom section.  He also based it on this plan from Martha Stewart.

We bought a few bags of organic garden soil and I grabbed a bunch of seed packets, and got to planting last night before while we still had beautiful weather (before the inevitable rain.  I haven’t taken the time to make plant markers, so I just marked the rows with sticks and jotted down a placement plan in a notebook.  I planted the rows in the first section (on the right) a little tight, so I gave a little more space in the other sections.  I can always add herbs or more rows later.

Let’s hope my lettuce grows!!!  I love me some salad!

Have you ever grown lettuce in a table or in pots?  Any tips?

I also was able to plant some vegetables in our raised bed tonight, but I’ll have to wait until the last frost for the rest.  So far I’ve planted cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, spinach, green onions, and chard.  I’ve got lots more planned!